joining me now is barbara lee of california. great to have you with us. i know you have personally worked hard on this and been an advocate for those less fortunate in our economy. are republicans going to hold unemployment hostage in these negotiations? >> i'm so glad you're focusing on this because of course, we have now, as you said earlier, so many people who will lose their unemployment benefits on december 29th. we have 2.1 million people who could lose these benefits. and i have to tell you, i hope that the republicans understand that many of these individuals are their constituents. unfortunately, during the last negotiations, unemployment benefits were reduced from 99 weeks to about 73 weeks. i could not support that. i hope this time around that those who are unemployed are not put on the chopping block in terms of their benefits being cut. we have nearly 50 million people living in poverty, 16 million of whom are children. and we need to help people until we turn this economy around. this is a safety net. it's a bridge over troubled waters. >>